Murder at Maddleskirk Abbey Read Online Free Page A

With a blunt instrument I doubt if you could kill yourself with a blow like this – and there’s no weapon. It’s clearly a vicious attack – in otherwords, it’s murder. We must close the crypt and call in the CID. This is now a crime scene.’
    As we were walking from the coffin, ensuring the curtain was closed behind us, the prior sounding worried, said, ‘It’s a good thing you came here, Nick. This is dreadful. It shows how inexperienced we are.’
    ‘It’s all part of the learning process, Father Prior. Everyone makes mistakes, that’s how we learn. Every police officer has to start somewhere.’
    ‘Well, this is going to be a new experience. Does it mean the abbey will be crawling with detectives, journalists and morbid sightseers? It will surely disrupt our routine….’
    ‘That’s bound to happen, but any disruption will be kept to a minimum, especially where the monks’ divine office and the college routines are concerned, it means it’s in our interest to control events. Anyway I must now call the local CID to get things moving. We’ve no time to waste.’
    ‘Shall I inform the abbot and headmaster now?’ he asked.
    ‘Yes, that’s important. Then we need to ask that sculptor to keep away until the initial investigation is over and the body has been removed. He’ll be able to return once examination of the crime scene is complete, but I’m afraid we can’t let him remove any of his tools.’
    ‘You’re saying they could be murder weapons?’
    ‘There are some useful-looking hammers and chisels among them, but I’m not suggesting Harvey used one of them! But someone else could have done. We need to secure the entire crypt immediately, but before we leave we must search it in case the killer is still hiding here, or there are more bodies. Or a murder weapon that has been thrown into a dark corner.’
    ‘Is that likely?’ He sounded even more worried at the thought.
    ‘It’s not impossible,’ was my response.
    We carried out the search, working together for safety reasons as we examined every possible hiding place for people and weapons, checking all the chapels, cupboards and darkspaces. It took half-an-hour but we were both satisfied that the killer was not concealed within the crypt and that no more bodies awaited discovery. Similarly, we did not find anything cast away that might have been the murder weapon, but a more thorough search would have to be undertaken by the police, perhaps with dogs. Our tour of the crypt led us back to Harvey’s work bench, now deserted with its tools scattered haphazardly about it. Not far from the coffin curtain, we stood briefly to admire his unfinished work. When finished, it would be fitted into a wall of the Lady Chapel; its measurements had been determined and the abbey’s estate workers had created a space by removing several courses of stones to create an upright trough which would house this beautiful work.
    ‘He works in wood and stone,’ Prior Tuck told me. ‘His work appears in several churches and cathedrals. Apart from creating works of art he carries out repairs to damaged statues. I don’t know how he’ll react to this disruption, though, he’s very touchy. He’s left already.’
    ‘I’m sure the detectives will do their best to let him continue working,’ I assured the prior. ‘All I can say is that if the killer is quickly identified and caught, normal services will be restored as soon as possible.’
    ‘Now I must break the bad news to the abbot and headmaster , and I’d better include the procurator. They might want a chat with you, Nick, to outline exactly what we might expect.’
    ‘I’ll be happy to do that.’
    ‘The actual murder enquiry – if it turns out to be murder – won’t really involve us, will it? By
us
, I mean the monkstables, as I’m beginning to call them!’
    ‘We might be allocated some modest local enquiries, Father Prior, bearing in mind that we have been sworn-in as local constables and